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Asus Set To Release Desktop Eee PC Variant
the_leander writes "The Register has pictures of the desktop version of Asus's Eee PC, reportedly called the 'Ebox.' It will be released early next month after it has been unveiled publicly at Computex in Taipei on June 3. It'll come equipped with the same Xandros Linux distribution as the Eee, though it's likely that Windows XP will be available also. But given the probable choice for CPU, Atom, ithe Ebox is unlikely to allow for the use of Vista, unless you're something of a masochist. It's expected to retail for $200-$300."
I like the looks of it, but where is the floppy drive?
Is it just me, or does it seem somewhat odd to make a low budget PC quite so flash and stylish? Surely, if you're trying to get sales by having THE cheapest machine on the market, then perhaps people might not care how it looks so much as how much it costs?
I would have thought you could shave at least $50 off the price if you built it in a really boring, plain case, without silly stands or LED buttons...
I really do.... I feel the karma drain
That's what I thought when I saw it. Sweet deal.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
It's like a portable desktop...
Seriously, if it is slim and small enough I can clearly think of several nice uses. It's a perfect living room pc, a kitchen computer ( I dont want my mom to get my laptop dirty when browsing recipes ), a car pc (someone would definitely do this), what else.. ohhh.. and a beowulf cluster, imagine a server rack of these..
People buy desktops for connecting to backend office infrastructure, and sad to say, the Windows-Office lockin still rules in this space. Skype and other stuff like Image manipulation might make sense in the Home Linux market, but there are already plenty cheap hardware out there that can run Linux for under $200. The gBox for one.
So Asus will find it very hard to push these desktops unless they race to the bottom. Which might rule out Windows XP as well.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
I don't see how any of this matters in a desktop.
The RV folks like a battery friendly PC. As a marine map display for boat use, or a topo map unit, these would make fantastic GPS map display units and double as an entertainment server for movies and music. Battery life with a 300 watt PC sucks. A sub 60 watt unit is more along the lines of usable in the evenings on battery power.
The truth shall set you free!
i'm pretty sure the windows version is called a wEee box.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
The performance of Vista on page 10: http://article.pchome.net/content-630588-10.html
Citing from original article: "Wind is using Intel 945 display chipset, which can easily handle Aero visual effects."
Though I doubt the validity of the statement.
Before I go into monologue mode, it looks like Dell already has something in the ultra slim ultra cheap arena. Dell EPP Inspiron 530S starts under $400, ok not as cheap as the Asus solution, but still.
I do see a need for an Asus EEE laptop. Something ultra cheap that you can kick around, get some work done on it, but not be too worried if it gets lost or stolen. I see slightly less of a need for an Asus EEE desktop. The market is pretty flooded with desktops, so much so that getting something in the Socket A to 939 class for $200-$300 on closeout is very possible. While duel core is all the rage, the last time I checked new egg a 4000+ single core 939 was well under $50, and that is nothing to sneeze at. A 2000mhz socket A system does the job for most people IMHO.
So the real question is this... do I want a trimmed down might as well be a laptop desktop, or do I want an older machine that might out perform it. There are no facts or specs to backup this assertion, it's just been my experience that new ultra cheap has often been outclassed by 3 year old goods.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Fixed that for you.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
...It'll come in windows and linux flavours, but the linux one will have half the ram and hdd capacity as the windows version and cost a twice as much due to 'lesser availability'.
Actually, for the announced configurations, the Eee 900 with Linux will have 20G flash (instead of 12G) and be slightly more expensive as a result. A fair tradeoff.
For the HP 2133, the Linux versions are consistently cheaper than the equivalent Windows versions.
So, direct your anger elsewhere. These mini laptops have been good for Linux.
Ohhh, did the nasty reviewer man disrespect poor widdle Microsoft?
Seriously, what's with this petulant Crokeresque "Leave Vista Alooonnnee" meme over the past few months?
I mean, give me a break. This is the company the _invented_ FUD. For years we've been hearing "Linux is hard to install", "Linux has poor hardware support", "Command line everything" "No games", etc, etc, etc.
Now it's your turn and you're whining like whipped bitches. Well suck it up. There's plenty more to come.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
You can get a year old regular desktop for the same price and run an operating system of your choice,
You can get a big, noisy, ugly, year old desktop, high power-consuming, requiring an O/S reinstall, along with hunting down all the applications (a no-no for the masses), with god-only-knows-what sort of hardware problems.
Or you can get one of these things - and have all common workflows (skype, office, google, music) working out of the box.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
You must have missed the memo, but Microsoft does not want you to be able to buy XP anymore. Everyone is supposed to move to Vista. So it is *most definitely* newsworthy if manufacturers are introducing *new products* a year and a half (!!) after Vista has been released to the public, *and they explicitly do not support the newest Microsoft OS at all*, although they do support the previous version - even though you're not even supposed to be able to buy that version anymore, at least not without jumping through all kinds of hoops. Hello? I consider this to be extremely newsworthy.
The EEE Laptops run Ubuntu just fine. I would be very surprised if these desktop versions wouldn't. Whether you could turn them into a Hackintosh is kindof a moot point IMO, but probably you could, at least if OS X happens to support the specific hardware they used. Please "get the facts" first next time, thanks.
Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
"Fight Fire With Fire And Everything Will Burn"
"An Eye For An Eye Leaves Everyone Blind"
Frankly, I dont like Microsoft anymore, nor am I ignorant to their previous and current propoganda, but this incessant Anti-Vista nonsense doesn't do much but help advertise Vista, people who have yet to 'experience' Vista, will start because its mentioned so often, under the impression that its so atrociously horrible that its just going to be a comedic little endeavor worth some giggles, then realize its not quite as bad as "all that" and probably grow to like it (as far as common computer users go).
Your choice of quotes is ammusing though, because up until the last few years, Linux has been all of those things to the common "e-mail checking and web browsing" computer users. Which I am not saying is a bad thing, because it led a lot of people into a better understanding of how the operating system functions fundamentally, aswell as I myself enjoyed it because its abundance of options and configuration, and now that there are a lot of "User Friendly" linux distributions out there, those distributions have become bloated and glitchy just like Microsofts OS's have, its what the greater percentage of the user base wants.
Anyways, thats beside my point, and I dont see Microsoft touting how "The XBox runs Microsofts [whatever the fuck] better than Linux", no, because its not intended to. You can argue how it should all be open and any OS under the sun (no punn) should be able to run on anything, but thats also off course of the point.
Why settle for 'virtually immune' when you can have 'immune'?
The very fact that long-time PC manufacturers are designing systems that "are not designed to run Vista" a year and a half after it has been released is about as significant news as you could possibly get, with regards to the PC market in any case.
The only reason when you might have considered it less relevant, would have been if the systems where not selling well at all. So, have you bothered to check Amazons Bestsellers in Computers & PC Hardware list lately? (Amazon being by far the largest online reseller that sells Apple, Asus EEE PC as well as Vista laptops?). The list updates hourly, but currently the first Vista laptop is at spot number 4. The Asus EEE PC used to be at 1 for over a week, and I guess the only reason why it currently isn't, is because they are out of stock everywhere. So it's currently in second place, flanked by Macbooks at place 1 and 3. So basically Microsofts margins are getting squeezed here from two directions at once: Apple at the high end, EEE PC's at the low end.
Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
To answer this question, let's leave the computer geek mind and enter the mind of average joe:
Because it's new,
Because it's beautiful,
Because it's small,
Because it's quiet,
Because it has the same interface as the eeePC (that you already have)
I don't get it.. why would it be able to run xandros and not run ubuntu? They're even both Debian based distros.. they're virtually the same, except for the UI (which can, of course, be changed anyway).
http://www.xkcd.com/354/
I mean, give me a break. This is the company the _invented_ FUD.
I think you meant IBM.
For years we've been hearing "Linux is hard to install", "Linux has poor hardware support", "Command line everything" "No games", etc, etc, etc.
Difference is, most of that stuff was (or still is, in the case of games) true. Pretty much everything negative that gets written about Vista - *especially* on Slashdot - is just flat-out wrong.
Microsoft's FUD pales into insignificance compared to the anti-Vista (and anti-Microsoft in general) crowd's.
One need only look at the very example that started this thread to see that. The "Diamondville" Atom CPU this machine is supposed to have comes in a 2.2Ghz, dual-core version. A CPU like that will run Vista fine (heck, the single-core version will run it fine).
Well,
1. it's just getting old. Yes, we know, you don't like MS. You may even imagine that it's your duty to save the world from it. Guess what? Noone else gives a fuck. Repeating the same wannabe-memes over and over again just makes one boring, nothing more.
2. Fighting FUD and disinformation with FUD and disinformation, does not a moral high ground make. Yes, MS has some nasty marketing and lacks ethics. Guess what? Being as big a lying prick doesn't make you better. It just makes you yet another lying prick.
If you have something useful to contribute (e.g., exactly what problems happen if one runs Vista on that machine, or on a similar configuration?), by all means, go ahead. But just rehashing "but does it run Vista" one-liners is just noise and literally FUD. It's, what? Saving the world from MS evil FUD, by filling it with your own? At the end then we'd still have a disinformed market, making purchases based on little more than uncertainty and _lack_ of knowledge, same as before. Big freakin' improvement. Not. It's like fighting against malaria by giving those people HIV instead.
3. If you want to talk about "inventing FUD", that term was first used about IBM. So, nope, MS didn't invent that either, just like they didn't invent the browser or personal computing.
4. "Now it's your turn and you're whining like whipped bitches" is a piss-poor ad-hominem. I know it probably doesn't fit your simplified view of the world, but not everyone who's tired of hearing you whine, bitch, and moan, is in any way connected to MS. Some of us are just tired of the endless noise from bleating fanboys, drowning the useful signal in threads that have nothing to do with their whine.
It has nothing to do with being pro or against MS. I can tell you that I have a BSD fanboy at work, trying to save me from Linux, and he's just as annoying.
5. "Well suck it up. There's plenty more to come." Well, that's what makes it annoying. You said it once, learn to take a break now and then. Repeating same tired fanboy whine again and again, is hardly going to make it either better or true than it was the first time around. It'll just add more noise to drown the useful signal. If your contribution to the world and claim to greatness is that you'll troll some more, heh... you could get some useful skill instead, and actually contribute something, ya know?
6. I'll even go one step further and say: "It is easier to be a "humanitarian" than to render your own country its proper due; it is easier to be a "patriot" than to make your community a better place to live in; it is easier to be a "civic leader" than to treat your own family with loving understanding; for the smaller the focus of attention, the harder the task." --Sydney J. Harris
I get the distinct impression that a lot of those who can't just shut up even for 5 minutes about saving the world from X (where X can be anything between the upcoming wrath of God, like in the Crusades, to more modern concerns like MS) are those who can't sort out their own lives, or show some backbone to the boss in person. It's _easy_ to fight for some nebulous global task that will never be done, and noone can fault you if you show no progress. So wake me up when you can claim some actual personal achievement, not just being a "me too" clone in the big cozy family of sheep bleating against MS.
Just a thought.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
It's also worth looking at customer satisfaction, as indicated by the customer reviews. Each of the Apple machines has a review average of 4.5/5 starts; the EEEPC has a review average of 5/5; the first Vista PC has a review average of 3/5. Not only are the non-Vista laptops selling very well, but the people who buy them are happier with what they get for their money - both at the high end and at the low end.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
The fact that it's not designed to run Vista, and probably has a spec that would struggle to run Vista is noteworthy to those who want to run MS on it. XPs days are numbered, so anybody buying one hoping for an MS Windows platform needs to know that they're already near the end of support. They might decide that it's worth it anyway, they might not, but it's relevant information, not naive Vista-bashing.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
It does however make you wonder then why Asus seems to be going out of it's way to not offer Vista over XP.
When this device was previewed in January it was made abundantly clear that XP would be the only Microsoft option offered.
If it's not due to technical reasons (I'll take your word on the fact that a low power cpu will allow for a graceful experience with Vista), perhaps cost?
regards, the_leander
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
Let's talk about who made that progress then.
It was made by people like those from Asus, who actually made a Linux computer for the masses. Or by the guys at Ubuntu putting together that wonderful distro. Or by the lots of guys who set their eyes on a realistic goal, like, say, let's make a little config utility, and actually achieved it.
It was not made by the trolling fanboys posting FUD.
In fact, any progress has been made in _spite_ of the trolling faboys and their blatant attempts at FUD. Those just helped alienate the potential market. If you tell someone a blatant lie again, you just lost credibility. Anything else that you try to tell him, will be tainted by that. And the fanboy FUD just served to create an impression in some people that the whole Linux crowd is a bunch of pathological lying whiners.
People, it's not like telling shit about Elbonia. Everyone has a Windows computer, or knows someone who does. Telling him bullshit like that his machine does this and that, which he knows (or can quickly check) that it doesn't do, is just a way to lose his trust and attention.
Even MS FUD steered clear of blatant lies. Just something to think about.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I asked a shop in the central business district of Melbourne how the EEE laptop Linux machines were selling now that Asus provides a Microsoft system (with lower hardware specs to compensate for the cost of the OS). The answer was that the Windows version was strongly outselling the Linux version. However, Linux market share is about 0.7% so even if the Windows version is selling 10 to 1, the Linux version is still helping Linux get market share.
For the record, I use Debian and for an EEE PC I would recommend to consumers to use the Linux version.
Sure, but it might save your life. Read about it in this book. When you are downwind from a big fire, set fire to the grass in front of you, then walk into the burned patch.
Define "few" years, please. I started using Linux in 1995 with the Yggdrasil "plug and play" distribution. At that time it was more or less like what the Microsoft shills claim, but still I was able to install and run it in less than an hour, without any outside help. Google didn't exist at the time and I had never met anyone who had ever used Linux.
Compared to that, at about the same period it took me nearly a week and several consultations with other people until I got Windows 95 to run on the same machine. The hardware drivers had to be carefully configured and installed in a precise sequence to boot windows 95, even though it had been running windows 3.11 before. So, even if Linux was in an extremely primitive state for the common user at the time, it wasn't any more difficult to install and configure than windows.
For normal use today, I think Linux with KDE is easier to use than XP (I have never tried Vista). For one thing, the "K" or "Start" menu is nicely organized, divided by application type instead of by software provider. Also, It's much easier to search and install software: click on "Add/Remove programs", search by keyword, click on "install" and "apply changes", and that's it. And copy/paste is easier too: select with the mouse, middle-click to paste. One handed, no need to CTRL-C, CTRL-V. And so on, etc, etc.
Now, if you think it's off-topic to mention Vista in a discussion about Linux, think again: why is it that Linux is mentioned 177000 times in the Microsoft website? It's always on-topic to mention the alternatives, of course.
Nope. Edison invented FUD. Either that or he stole it from someone else (as was his practice).
FUD didn't begin with Microsoft or IBM.
You could probably find some examples in Greece, Egypt or Ur if you tried to look for it...
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.